Posted on 06/08/2010 3:13:46 PM PDT by khnyny
Underground oil is not normally in caverns, but in regions of porous rock.
It can pump 500,000 barrels a day for ten years!
No, it can't. The 500,000 BPD figure is an estimate of the decrease of production in the Gulf of Mexico from declaring a moratorium on new wells for one year.
My (limited) research indicates that upper level figures for the amount of oil that could come out of this well are about 60,000 BPD, and I did not see anything about 10 years.
No, but I know what is about and I have not heard anyone claiming that the oil well causing a problem in the Gulf is somehow larger or different in a way related to Gold's theories.
Yeah, your right, it’s best not to widen one’s mind.
I don’t doubt it at all... I’ve seen managers routinely ignore engineers warnings and make horrific decisions for far less $$ than this.
Did it happen? Can’t say, but do I have any reason to believe that the survivors are lying? Nope. Can I say that this sort of decision is outside the realm of what I’ve seen management types make when faced with facts from engineers? Nope.
Anyone who doubts companies ROUTINELY ignore engineers warnings, has never sat in meetings where engineers rail against doofuses with MBAs who have no clue making decisions about things they just don’t understand.
You think this can’t or doesn’t happen, you are a fool. Go read up on Challenger and what exactly happened there. This sort of thing absolutely could have happened, and given BPs blatant lying since it has happen I have no real reason to believe that these folks are lying.
Exactly if this thing spewed non stop without a cap until the relief wells are completed sometime in August... all that oil every drop that spewed would add up to I believe what the US uses in 4 hours.
This thing can’t spew 1/2 a million barrells a day for 10 years, that statement is just absolutely false.
“So then how is it that Halliburton topped off the well with cement.”
The top plug of cement was never put in - the well blew before they had the chance. The lower portion of the casing had been cemented in (by Haliburton?). But, the hole had been losing mud to the formation during drilling, and they think a bunch of the concrete also went into the formation (away from the casing where it was supposed to be so it would seal everything).
BP forgoed a geophysical log down the hole that would have shown how well the concrete had made the seal.
Then they rushed pumping in the seawater to replace the drilling mud. Interesting news to me that too much mud can raise the hackles of the EPA. Not sure why, I’m pretty sure it is in a closed system and isn’t getting dumped into the ocean after it is used.
Once the mud had been replaced with seawater then they were going to put a shallow concrete plug in the well. They never got the chance.
Looks to me like Halliburton is pretty much cleared of liability even if it won’t keep people from trying to sue them.
I suppose the company man has the final say. The drilling crew is working for him. However, I worked on an oil rig for a couple of summers. My driller was top-notch, and everyone knew it - and he may not have had the title, but he was the boss. Even the company man knew it, and was there more in a support role.
What troubles me is a statement made by one of the survivors on AC360 (worthless show, btw).
He said of the decision to replace the mud in the riser with saltwater: “I don’t know why TransOcean went along with it.”
This told me that TransOcean had a “veto” and declined to use it.
If it was RIG that made the final decision: then they’re gonna haveta write BP a very big reimbursement check at some point down the road.
If true, Transocean should have just walked away, and let BP handle it. There is NO excuse for subordinating one’s own professional judgement over a key safety issue! Tranocean does NOT have to do whatever BP says - they will just lose the contract, at worst.
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